Friday, January 14, 2011

Random Tidbits: Part 7 - Sandwiches

(Side note: I just noticed that on Firefox, the pictures on my blog are desaturated a bit. I checked other websites, but it seems as though it's only my pictures that get desaturated when I compare Firefox to Safari. The colours on Safari are fine. Is this just my laptop?)

Dunn’s: December 7th, 2010

The last time we had a smoked meat sandwich, we visited Bobby’s Table sometime in November. As I said in that post, I found the smoked meat there a bit lacking in flavour. It was a decent sandwich, but nothing amazing. Since the visit to Bobby’s Table, I was looking forward to visiting Dunn’s. It took a bit of convincing on my part, but Mom and Dad eventually agreed to sit and enjoy a meal at Dunn’s.

I ordered their smoked meat sandwich platter with a Coke, while Mom and Dad each ordered a smoked meat sandwich with Kaiser rolls. At first, I asked the waitress if we could get the end pieces of smoked meat but she asked the kitchen and came back without an answer.

We received regular sliced meat in the end, which was fine by me. I was just curious as to how flavourful the end pieces of smoked meat were. The smoked meat was juicy but it felt like something was missing. Even though there was more meat in this sandwich than the one I had at Bobby’s Table, the sandwich wasn’t that much better.

In fact, the fries at Bobby’s Table were a lot enjoyable than the fries I was given here. The fries were warm – not hot – and had a slight bitter taste due to being too “well-done”. It felt like the fries were the last bits of a batch. Mom was not impressed and neither was I.

The coleslaw had a great vinegary punch. It played a perfect role of cutting the grease of the fries and the sandwich. I love how the creaminess mellows out the really sharp vinegar dressing. Lucy and Andrew love this stuff.

Overall, the combo was mediocre. The over-done fries made the meal less enjoyable, but the coleslaw made up for the burnt fries. Mom and Dad liked the sandwiches more than I did, but agreed with me on everything else.

La Bottega: December 8th, 2010

Lucy and I met up for lunch at the ByWard Market. We walked over to La Bottega and picked up sandwiches. The sandwich line was surprisingly short and quick when we went through. The line up at the two cashiers; however, was painfully slow. I mean, who buys their groceries at La Bottega in the middle of the week – during the lunch rush?

Anyway, we enjoyed our sandwiches at the food court in Rideau. Lucy had a prosciutto and capacollo sandwich with spicy eggplant, tomatoes, olives and mustard on focaccia.

I got a prosciutto and capocollo sandwich with provolone cheese, mayo, mustard and lettuce on some sort of bun – which was very similar to Lucy’s. I can’t remember which bread I chose. I liked the sandwich but I can’t remember any other details. I’ll just leave it as that.

Dad’s Beef Sandwiches: December 19th, 2010

Dad made some sort smoked beef with his own concoction of spices (the stronger ones I picked up were cloves, star anise and black pepper). He planned to slice up the meat, make them into sandwiches and serve it with homemade french fries. Dad had the urge to make the fries since Dunn’s.

Homemade fries are really easy to make – the trick is to double fry the potatoes. First, Dad cut up the potatoes, dried them with a paper towel, then and briefly fried them in batches. The first time he fried them was to partially cook the potatoes.

The second time he fried them was to get a crispy, golden crust. Again, Dad fried them in batches. This was done just before we began to eat. These fries were just like the fries at Bobby’s Table; the fries had a crispy jacket with fluffy insides.

An idea popped into my head. For some reason, I wanted to make onion rings and so I started to slice the onions. With my pro knife skills, I sliced the onions too thinly. And to cover up my mistake, I started to thinly slice the rest of the onions.

Instead of a wet batter for onion rings, I remembered that a dry breading mix would be perfect for onion strings. I added flour, chicken bouillon mix, black pepper, and chili pepper. At first, I thought about tossing all of the dry mix to the thinly sliced onions but I remembered that the mixture will turn into a gluey mess. Luckily, I stopped before it was too late.

After a few batches of Dad's fries were done, I took a handful of onions and tossed it in the dry mix, shook off the excess dry mix, and tossed them into the oil. Once fried, these onion strings were heavenly! The breading was salty and slightly spicy, while the onions were sweet and tender. I’m definitely going to make these again!

For something a bit healthier, we boiled some sugar snap peas. These were quite sweet. A bit of butter not only made them taste better, but it also boosted the health factor. Oh yeah!

Lucy thought that Dad’s spice mix tasted like pho so much, that it grossed her out. She ended up snacking on the sides with kewpie mayo.

I didn’t get a picture of the sandwiches, but they weren’t that great. The beef was so dry that Jimmy and I ate our sandwiches by dipping them into gravy before each bite. After Dad’s first sandwich, he put together some fries, end pieces of the meat and gravy. This was something that brought back lots of memories of working at Kardish for Dad.

When I think of sandwiches, I think of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches and stuff like that. I guess it’s because I didn’t grow up with smoked meat sandwiches and Italian cold cuts, but those types of sandwiches still feel unfamiliar. I need to get more adventurous with my sandwiches – that’s for sure.